Join Citizens Advice as they examine how cuts to disability benefits are expected to pull hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty.
Disabled people are struggling. Access to disability benefits is our largest single advice area, and our disabled clients are among those needing most support with cost-of-living issues.
In this context, the government’s proposals for restricting eligibility for disability and incapacity benefits, and cutting incapacity benefit payments, will cause significant hardship for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions. By their own admission, hundreds of thousands of disabled people will be sent into poverty, and many more already poverty will be pushed deeper into destitution.
Child poverty will increase too as disabled parents are set to be among the hardest hit, and there is little prospect of income from employment replacing lost benefits income in the near future.
At our June Data Insights event, we’ll be joined by a panel of experts to explore our data and the financial circumstances of disabled people more generally. We’ll explore the challenges disabled people face in living costs, housing, employment, accessing services and the benefits system, etc. – and consider whether the government’s proposals offer any real hope to improve outcomes for disabled people.
The event will be an opportunity to think through the possible impact of cuts and wider reforms ahead of the main parliamentary stages and the deadline for green paper consultation responses.